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A lot of cryptocurrency enthusiasts are keeping a close eye on the Litecoin network right now. This popular altcoin is looking to activate SegWit and almost reached the threshold a few days ago. Ever since that time, Chinese pools have added more mining power to oppose this change. It now appears there is a plan on the table to implement the user-activated soft fork. An interesting concept that will shake up the LTC ecosystem as we know it.
It is not surprising to find out some companies oppose SegWit activation on the litecoin network. More specifically, these companies are largely the same ones who block bitcoin SegWit activation as well. Chinese mining pools continue to oppose this scaling solution for their own reasons. Whether or not that is due to financial incentives, remains everybody’s guess for the time being. It also highlights the centralization problem found in the cryptocurrency mining ecosystem, though.
The User-activated Soft Fork May Come To Litecoin
To combat this network opposition, the Litecoin team is seemingly considering a different solution. It is rumored the user-activated soft fork solution may come to litecoin in the future. This allows anyone on the network to cast their vote on whether or not SegWit is the right scaling solution. Considering how the network saw 70% miner support just a few days ago, it seems evident there is a growing demand for such a solution.
seems like $LTC is ready to go nuclear on the centralized mining issue crypto is facing! This might change crypto forever! #UASF #Litecoin pic.twitter.com/d8pZucJf4x
— TenaciousC (@T3naciousC) April 9, 2017
A recent tweet seems to hint at how the UASF implementation may be a matter of time. It has not been officially announced by the developers, though. If there is any truth to this statement, things will get very interesting for litecoin moving forward. A user-activated soft fork should succeed in activating SegWit a lot sooner than just mining pools will. After all, it appears the Chinese players can bring additional mining power online whenever they feel like it. In doing so, they continue to oppose the network becoming more mature.
Manipulation by a few mining pool operators is a very big problem in cryptocurrency right now. Both bitcoin and litecoin mining pools are largely controlled by the same entities. Unfortunately, these players are more interested is opposing scaling rather than let the networks mature. That is not a positive development by any means, that much is evident. A user-activated soft fork can solve these problems with relative ease. Then again, there is no guarantee for successfully activating SegWit for litecoin.
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